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Alzheimer's patients at risk of Medicaid cuts

Changes to state Medicaid rules that will cut benefits to group home residents across the state will also affect between 3,000 and 4,000 people with Alzheimer's disease who live in adult care facilities, sources close to state proceedings told WRAL News Wednesday.

I will freely admit that many of the issues I blog about are not from experience, but from research, the vast majority of which I glean from online sources. But this is one issue I learned about firsthand, and I will likely spend the rest of my life trying to repair the parts of my heart that broke as a result.

We kept my father at home for as long as we could, long past when he should have been admitted to a facility designed for such care. I suffered a few (literal) bruises during this time, but it was when I saw my mother's black eye that I knew the time we had postponed was upon us.

He lasted less than 24 hours in the first place, even though those folks had assured me they could handle anything. Luckily (I thought) there was a bed available across town at a larger and more secure facility, so I left work and transported my father from one to the other. He lasted there for a whole week before ending up in the back of a deputy's cruiser on his way to Butner, where they kept him for several months.

I won't go any farther with this story, because it pains me too much. But I will say this: If anybody in DHHS or the General Assembly believe Alzheimer's patients can be cared for by friends or family, they simply don't know what the hell they're talking about.

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